I am a Fan of LEVITHANS. BUT how could have the story been better??

[spoiler]I'm not convinced that Ned Stuart didn't get drunk and put a noose around his neck and make up the whole thing.[/spoiler]

That's the best reason I've heard for it! That was completely ridiculous and I still can't make sense of it. Your idea does make some sense...
[spoiler]...as Ned just disappeared once they come back from 1897. I'm not complaining about that, but he really should have taken his sister with him. Sabrina is without a doubt my least favorite character (her and Amanda, who we also could have done without here). I'm a big Chris Jennings fan and I couldn't even enjoy his scenes during this storyline since Sabrina was always there nagging. 

Overall, the Leviathan storyline has it's entertaining moments, but I don't really dislike it. I can really take it or leave it. They really killed Nicholas Blair, though. He just wasn't the same as he was the first time around![/spoiler]

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of books, films, and even video games (Alone in the Dark, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, and Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened are probably the most notable examples) that use Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos as inspiration. Some even believe the mythos to be fact.

Didn't Whedon base his demons sort of on the mythos???  The Old One's and [spoiler]Illyria and Jasmine as well?[/spoiler]

Yes, all of those were most certainly Lovecraftian.

Responding to the original idea, i.e. How To Make the Leviathan Storyline Better.

I believe two things would be vital to achieving that.  First, Barnabas should have been a reluctant slave to the Leviathans, so that he'd be struggling with them and many of our heroes would be striving to save him.  Second, the Leviathan Kid should not have been a total absolute jerk.  There was, I believe, an enormous potential for pathos in the story of Jeb, a man who was not a man yet perhaps longed to be precisely that.  Yet as originally portrayed, one could not help but wonder what super-masochistic, self-hating streak did Carolyn possess to even date this guy, much less marry him!

I think that the creature absolutely had to be shown in some way.   Once I realized that DS would never do that, the bottom fell out of the whole storyline for me.   At the very least, some hint of a creature should have been shown, a disturbing sort of limb in the shadows inside the Room.   Don't tell me that someone couldn't have come up with something halfway impressive on a showstring, and lighting and some odd sort of lens could have sold the effect further.

I was fascinated by the beginning of the storyline.   It seemed as if these people may be from some other planet or the future.   I loved the fact that the scale of this story was so much bigger-- it wasn't just some people in Collinsport endangered, it was the world.   My imagination was racing.   They should have been as daring with it as I thought they were going to be.

Great POST Magnus my friend.  I thorougly enjoyed it! 

Second, the Leviathan Kid should not have been a total absolute jerk.  There was, I believe, an enormous potential for pathos in the story of Jeb, a man who was not a man yet perhaps longed to be precisely that.  Yet as originally portrayed, one could not help but wonder what super-masochistic, self-hating streak did Carolyn possess to even date this guy, much less marry him!

You and I are completely on the same wavelength here. I've filled up tons of cyberspace through the years with my incredulity over how Carolyn couldn't see Jeb for the cheap, insufferable pig that he was. Not to mention over how she could ignore everything that was beating her over the head with the truth that [spoiler]Jeb murdered her father.[/spoiler]The whole situation from start to finish is beyond acceptance regardless of the level of suspension of disbelief one attempts to employ!

I thoroughly agree. Jeb was an almost totally unlikable character. What Carolyn saw in him to consider him her "one true love" is beyond me.

questionable taste,and even worse judgment,in her choice of partners is one of the defining hallmarks of carolyn stoddard hawkes.it's par for the course.

so her choice of jeb here didn't surprise me in the least.

If you all thought Jeb was a bad mate for Carolyn, how about [spoiler] NED STUART?!!!

In Return to Collinwood they had Carolyn wed to HIM of all people. I realize that they had to do with the actors that were available, but sheesh, if they were going to pair Carolyn up with someone and it had to be with a Roger Davis character there's no reason they couldn't have given him a new character to play. I absolutely could not stand Ned, and thinking back on their first scene together, I can't buy Carolyn even wanting to be in the same room with him ever again, let alone wanting to date and marry him. [/spoiler]

Ned Stuart may have been a pig, but he at least wasn't the Antichrist.

IF they would have made the stories pace faster like it was when the story was winding up and if they would have found more to do for Q.  It seemed like they didn't know how to utilize him.

I agree that something more could have been done with the Quentin character.  The cursed playboy role was wearing a little thin.  I always thought that the Charles Delaware Tate role was something that could have been expanded upon.  I basically liked the Leviathan era and found most of the new characters interesting.  I wish that Barnabas would have remained 'bad' for awhile longer (sigh).

Great POST Magnus my friend.  I thorougly enjoyed it! 

Why thank you...!

I don't know what else they could have done with Tate. I think they went as far as they could have with him.

It did seem that the writers didn't know what to do with the Quentin character once he was brought into the present. I didn't mind the amnesia angle, but the "star-crossed" lovers routine with him and Amanda/Olivia was a bore.

I wouldn't have minded seeing Barnabas be evil for a bit longer too, not only butting heads with Julia but also with Quentin and Chris too, especially Chris. I still think that [spoiler] Barnabas was trying to get the ball rolling to expose Chris when he told Elizabeth to check up on Chris' activities. [/spoiler] I would have liked to have seen him work on that a little bit more and of course, but before he got carried away Julia and Chris could have realized what he was doing and had it out with him.

But viewer response back then just did not take to Barnabas reverting a bit to his old evil ways. Funny how things change over the course of years. Most of us now wouldn't have minded a bit.